Monday, April 11, 2016

"Imagining Redemption" by Peter Hawisher-Faul

Sermon given on April 6, 2016Scripture - Romans 8:22-27Have
you ever watched a movie and wondered why the characters can’t think of a
better way to act? Do you sit on the edge of your seat saying or thinking “Why
would you open that door? Don’t open that door!” or maybe “Don’t go out into the jungle! You know the clever
raptors hunt in packs.” Or have you ever finished the end of a movie or tv show
and looked back and thought of ten ways the characters could have had a better
ending? I know I have. Maybe if the hero had been just a little more suspicious
of the villain, or if a character could have just stayed home, everything would
have worked out better. There is a whole youtube series called “How it Should
Have Ended” that looks at movies and finds a better way to resolve the plot.

The
thing is, it’s a lot different to watch a movie than it would to be a character
in a movie. Can you imagine being put in some of the intense situations that
characters are put in? It’s easy to say they should have known better, but if
you were placed under the same pressures you might not be able to see the best
way forward. Like, when you go through a bad breakup, when you chose whose
advice to take, or when you are placed under pressure of deciding your future,
it’s not always clear what the best choice is.

Our
choices are limited by our imagination. When we are living the story, we can only
see so far and anticipate so much. In the midst of a crisis it can be hard
event o put our hopes into words. We might not be able to name what exactly is
wrong, much less see how to make it right. Our imagination could even be filled
with everything that could get worse, making imagining hope not only difficult,
but impossible. There are so many ways that our imagination can stop us from
finding what we are looking for; after all, we might not even be looking for
the right thing.

This
is why Paul says that we are groaning. We experience suffering and much of the
time it feels like there is no way to make it right. Whether that pain be from
damaged relationships, the pressure to put on “Penn face” and be an all-star
student, or from the anxiety of facing an uncertain future with poor job
prospects and broken political system, whatever our personal source of pain, we
are left waiting for more and hoping for change that we don’t know how to name
and might not even be able to imagine.

We
are not groaning and suffering alone, Paul says, but with all of creation. This
in fact is the focus of the story of redemption that God is working out. It is
not just humans that need to be reconciled with God, but all of creation must
be reconciled with her Creator. Where we might normally think of the life of
the world as a macrocosm of our lives as individuals, Paul speaks of the
redemption of our bodies through adoption by God as a microcosm of the
redemption of creation. Our salvation is tied to the salvation of creation
because our sin has impacted all of creation. When humanity was cursed after
disobeying God in the garden of Eden, the ground was cursed with us;
cultivation of life on the earth becomes a difficult task because of our sin.

While
we might not experience the thorns, thistles, and toil of farming, we don’t
have to look far to see how humans have hurt the world. There is an “island” of
decomposing plastic bottles the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean. Pollution
has yet to be kept in check by our governments and corporations. We might hope
for peace, but it is all we can do to imagine a world with less violence. So
many species have gone extinct in recent history that many scientists claim
that humans are responsible for starting a mass-extinction. “We know that the whole creation has been
groaning in labor pains until now;23 and not only the creation, but we
ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we
wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”

But
these groanings are labor pains, birth pangs. As characters in this story, we
may not be able to imagine what the redemption of creation will look like, but
God is creating new life. Jesus shared in our suffering and in the suffering of
the world, living a life that is not silenced by death with love that surpasses
all boundaries. Paul says that we are adopted as children of God and co-heirs
of Christ and we live by the Spirit that filled Jesus in his ministry. We may
not be able to imagine what redemption of all of creation will look like, but
we have hope in the Spirit, who intercedes on our behalf with “sighs too deep
for words.”

The
Spirit is the source of our hope, not our imagination or the world we see. Paul
says “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who
hopes[p]for
what is seen?” Paul
looks around at his world at sees nothing worth hoping for. His hope is not in
the peace and supremacy of Rome or the success of his tent-making business,
which I’m guessing was not a terribly lucrative field. We look for hope in our
world, but creation cannot redeem itself; it must be redeemed by the Creator.
We may look for a political revolution, a career filled with meaning, a
lucrative job on Wall Street, a loving family, or recognition of our personal
accomplishments, but none of the things we long for will ultimately satisfy our
yearning for a better world. We long for good things in the world, but we don’t
need to give up on our dreams and settle for what we see in the world. We are
unsatisfied for a reason, because our true hope is the new life that only God
can bring, the new life that Jesus embodies and the Spirit breathes into our
world to redeem all of creation.

Where
we are weak and unable to bring change or even to properly imagine it, the Holy
Spirit intercedes on our behalf. We long for change, but we don’t know what it
would even look like. We cry out, but we cannot really grasp the cause of our
suffering. We don’t know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit hears our
groaning and the groaning of creation as prayer. The Spirit hears our cries,
and God knows what our hearts long for, working for the good of creation in our
lives beyond what we could imagine for ourselves.

When we
look at the stories told by movies and tv, some of the struggles that
characters face can feel meaningless because the authors of the stories are not
writing just out of love for the characters. Characters may be killed off, take
bad advice, or betray their own values as it suits the authors’ interests. When
we look at our lives and the world and see no signs of hope, we might wonder if
we can trust God’s creative work in our lives. We know that God’s love is
sincere and that God’s love has the power to set the world right because of the
love Jesus showed for his disciples and the world, the love that not even death
or Roman power could silence. That love is our true hope.

We long
for a better world, but we cannot see the way. With all of creation we groan in
labor pains, and the Spirit hears our longing and intercedes for us with sighs
too deep for words. We wait for the redemption of all creation, placing our
hope in God’s plans, which surpass anything we could plan for ourselves.

Wendell
Berry wrote a poem that I think expresses what he hears in the groaning in
labor pains of all creation. Read it, and reflect on what is the new life you
long to see in the world. The poem is called “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer
Liberation Front.”

Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by
Wendell Berry

Love
the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And
you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When
they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce
the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask
the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say
that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen
to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask
yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go
with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As
soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be
like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

"Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" from The Country of Marriage, copyright ®
1973 by Wendell Berry